Boris Johnson compared climate change to the fall of the Roman Empire tonight warning society could return to the dark ages with ‘terrifying’ speed.
As he arrived in Rome for the G20, the PM presented an apocalyptic vision about the future. He will be trying to build momentum ahead the COP26 summit next Wednesday.
Johnson gave an extraordinary warning about the danger of future generations falling into illiteracy. He even suggested that cows could become smaller.
He argued that after the collapse of Rome, civilisation even lost the ability to draw properly – saying ‘our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren’ could face food and water shortages.
Boris made these comments as he arrived at the Eternal City to attend a G20 summit. He is desperately trying to get more support for a breakthrough agreement at COP26.
According to some reports, the Prime Minister is now more conscious of the environment since he married Carrie Johnson (pictured).
These comments were made amid concerns that the Glasgow gathering might end up being a damp squib.
China’s premier Xi Jinping has confirmed that he will not attend the event in person, although he will make a speech by video link.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is also shunning the summit along with Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro.
Speaking to reporters en route to the G20, Mr Johnson said: ‘Humanity as a whole, at half time is about 5-1 down.
“We still have a lot to do, but we can do it.
‘We have the ability to equalise, to save the position, to come back but it will take a huge amount of effort.’
In a long description of the tragedy of the Roman Empire, Mr Johnson said ‘things can go backwards as well as forwards’.
‘Unless we get this right in tackling climate change we could see our civilisation, our world, also go backwards and we could consign future generations to a life that is far less agreeable than our own.’
COP26 starts in Glasgow on Sunday. It will be looking to build on the Paris climate summit 2015 agreements where nations agreed to limit global warming to 1.5C.
The Prime Minister’s remarks come at a time when some have claimed that the absence China and Russia of their premiers will make COP26 a damp fish.
He went on: ‘We could consign our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren to a life in which there are not only huge movements of populations and huge migrations, but also shortages of food, shortages of water, of conflict caused by climate change and there is absolutely no question that this is a reality that we must face.’
Mr Johnson said after Roman civilisation humanity became ‘far less literate’.
‘Look at evidence of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire if you doubt what I say, when Rome fell humanity became far less literate overall, people lost the ability to read and write, they lost the ability to draw properly, they lost the ability to build in the way the Romans did.’
He said: ‘Things can go backwards and they can go backwards at a really terrifying speed.’
COP26 begins on Sunday at Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus (SEC) and will welcome 30,000 delegates, 10,000 police and as many as 200,000 protesters for the 13-day conference.